


Stolen Moment

by CharredAshes



Series: Reaper76 Week [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: (It's not like a major part but it's mentioned in passing and I love that HC.), Blind Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Overwatch, Reaper76 Week, SEP era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 07:43:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9374954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharredAshes/pseuds/CharredAshes
Summary: The Soldier Enhancement Program is as intense and grueling as it gets. Under a star-filled sky, two recruits sneak away for a moment to themselves.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Reaper76 Week Day 1!! I'm so excited to be participating, I'll be making this a series with more pieces soon!!! A little late on the draw, I know, so hopefully I'll get two more up tonight.

 

The looming building was familiar only in that it looked like every other military base he’d ever lived on. Stone walls, chain link fence, bored looking guy sitting in the little checkpoint booth at the entrance. It sometimes felt more like a prison, with all the strict security protocols and isolation from the outside world. That was the base of the Soldier Enhancement Program – America’s answer to the Omnic Crisis. Of course they’d get all Captain America with it. Couldn’t expect anything else from the good ol’ USA.

If only it were that easy though. Grueling physical training between weeks of chemical treatments to make them stronger and faster, make them heal quicker and fight longer. It also made their muscles ache and burn, their stomachs turn with nausea, their heads heavy with dizzying migraines.

Brotherhood would find its way into any military unit, but such intense conditions had a way of making even the most fleeting of bonds feel strong. So those that weren’t so fleeting? Those were like iron.

Right from the beginning, Jack Morrison had caught his attention. He was good. All the recruits in their section were, of course – the best of the best, plucked from every branch of the military through a rigorous application and interview process – but Jack was something special. Recruits dropped out all the time. Either they got sick off the chemicals or hurt themselves during training. Or maybe for some, the mental strain was just too much. Jack had been in the same training unit as him from the very beginning. That was interesting enough on its own, after these past months, but what Gabriel really liked about Jack was how strongly he matched up with him. It sparked his competitive spirit. He always wanted to be at the front of the pack, and who else did he find there but Morrison?

Neither of them were bad sports about it. The competitive attitude transferred over into friendly teasing after training, into chatting over meals, into walking the long hallways back to their dorms after days of heavy training. Sometimes, they’d take detours. Neither of them really acknowledged it, but if one took a turn down a different hallway and the other followed, there was a sort of unspoken understanding that they wanted just a little more time to talk. Sometimes, when one was stuck in bed, sick off the enhancement chemicals, the other would sneak over before training for a whispered conversation in the blessedly darkened room. Sometimes, they would both sneak out in the middle of the night, climb the stairs to the roof and sit.

This was one such night.

They tucked themselves away into a corner, huddled up with coats over pajamas and shoulders pressed together. Gabriel had smuggled a cigarette from God knows where and was blowing tiny smoke rings into the chilly night air.

“Gabe.” The sound of Jack’s voice drew Gabriel’s attention, turning his head to peer over at him with a questioning expression. “Why’d you join the SEP?” It was a simple enough question, one every recruit in the program was asked probably at least once a week. He hadn’t gotten the question from Jack before though. He took another drag from his cigarette and shrugged.

“I dunno. ‘Cause the marines didn’t give me what I needed?” Jack was facing him, though not really looking (he was blind as a bat without that eyepiece they’d fitted him with). The answer made him chew his lip in thought.

“What _did_ you need?” Gabriel breathed, not quite a sigh but close. It was hard to articulate. He’d gone into the military a bright-eyed eighteen-year-old who wanted more than anything else just to make a difference. Maybe he’d joined the SEP because the idea of what they intended gave him that same hopeful squirm in the pit of his belly. Maybe he was just fooling himself into trying to play the hero again. He kept all that to himself, instead offering Jack a sort of summary.

“Maybe… The chance to make a difference? It’s hard for any one person to make that much of an impact in a situation like this. I wanted more than the marines were offering me. I didn’t want to be doing the grunt work any idiot with a rifle could be taking care of. The SEP was more… It was just more.” Jack hummed in consideration of that, all the while tilting his head to press his face against the collar of Gabe’s coat, shielding himself from the breeze icing his cheeks. “If that makes sense.”

“Makes sense to me.” Jack’s easy acceptance of his reasoning warmed him. He found it difficult to discuss his disappointments with the military, but Jack didn’t argue his logic. It made him feel comfortable.

“Why’d you join?” Gabriel had a policy that he’d only ask as much if someone else did first.

“School. My parents put me through pre-med, but I needed to figure out how to cover medical school myself.” He nodded along with Jack’s explanation. Made sense. He pulled field medic duties in their unit, so med student hopeful sounded about right.

Gabriel’s fingers brushed over a thin, pink scar on the back of his forearm, the remnant of a small accident he’d had during training a month back. Jack had cleaned and bandaged it up, since it wasn’t major enough to constitute a proper infirmary visit. It was what had started their first real conversation. Nothing like teasing the medic washing dirt off your arm. “You’ll make a good doctor when all this is said and done,” he told him. It wasn’t empty praise. Gabriel didn’t do that. Jack _would_ make a good doctor. The feeling of lips curling up into a smile against his neck made a shiver shoot down his spine.

“And you’ll do amazing at whatever you want to,” he said in return, breath puffing over Gabriel’s throat. The feeling made him smile. “I’m sure of that. I think you’d be better than anyone at your pick of anything. That’s the kind of person you are.”

Gabriel laughed and moved his arm so Jack could get a little closer, draping it across Jack’s shoulders and letting him lean into his chest. “You can’t say that when we keep trading top times on the training course.”

“I can say whatever I want. It’s true.” One of Jack’s hands reached up, brushing over the curve of Gabriel’s jaw, feeling the slight stubble growing there, searching for one of the combat scars that decorated his features. Gabriel stayed still, just enjoying the touch, his eyes fluttering closed. The hand on his jaw skimmed further up, threading into his short curls to urge his head down. Their lips met in a slow, careful kiss. Not the first one they’d shared under the stars with a burnt-out cigarette in one of Gabriel’s hands and a blustery breeze ruffling their clothes. It was easy and comfortable. Kissing each other came to them both as natural as breathing. A soft press of lips that fit perfectly together, bated breath intermingling as they waited for the right moment to press deeper. A cigarette was dropped, laying forgotten on the stone roof beneath them as wanting hands found purchase in the fabric of each other’s shirts or the curves of hips and shoulders.

It never went any further than wistful kisses, one of them always breaking away with a murmured word about how they ought to get back inside. Smiles were exchanged, hinting at the butterflies that lingered in both of their stomachs, eyes alight and dancing with the peaceful joy of the stolen moment. Then, without another word, Gabriel would pull himself to his feet and grab Jack’s hand to haul him up after. Their fingers would twine together as they sneaked back inside, only releasing each other when they had to part ways and return to their separate dorms, falling asleep with the taste of each other still on their lips.

**Author's Note:**

> Obligatory reminder that I do commissions. Find the info on my blog @ strikecommandergabriel.tumblr.com


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